Joynerzone

Sorry for being incredibly behind! I always have great aspirations for staying up to date. HA! So, here are just a few of the things I still need to blog about:

My birthday–yes, that was over a month ago now.

Colby’s 3rd birthday, along with his 3 yr stats.

My trip to the dermatologist, which resulted in a minor surgical procedure.

Kindergarten Round-up

Mother’s Day

Muffins with Moms at Preschool

My fun with mastitis

And, by the time I get to these, we will also have had Abriella’s Pre-K graduation

Yep, we’ve been a bit busy! Hang in there!

Here is a picture that doesn’t go with any of the above mentioned activities, so I’ll at least make your visit worthwhile here.

Here is Colby as they were setting him up yesterday morning.

Does that make you as claustrophobic as it does me just looking at it??  I knew they were going to use a papoose board for him, and it made me feel sad for him already. Seeing it really was hard. Then, to have the laughing gas going and then all the other contraptions. Yikes! Poor guy didn’t know what in the world to think! I was back there as they got him set up, but then had to go back to the waiting room while they actually did the crowns. He started crying for me when he realized I was not going to be back there with him.

In addition to the laughing gas, he was given submucosal Demerol. So, they said he actually took a little nap while they were working on him. So, that was great! Went very smoothly. Now, afterwards was a different story. He started crying when we were leaving and cried all the way home! His poor face was all swollen and numb. He didn’t stop crying until after we got home and Stephen was able to distract him from his discomfort.

Then, of course, he was hungry, but was only supposed to eat soft, bland foods. We had all kinds of choices, but I was afraid we were going to be up a creek on that, since he doesn’t like things such as applesauce (what kid doesn’t like applesauce?!), soup, yogurt (well, he used to love yogurt, but as of late, has not wanted it. yesterday was no exception). He didn’t want little peach pieces or bread or anything. He wouldn’t eat mac-n-cheese, oatmeal, or anything we could come up with. We even tried ice cream, but he wanted it warmed up! HA! (We actually did warm it up to humor him…of course he wouldn’t eat it then, either). So, he basically waited until later in the day when we felt it was ok to give him some things that he liked that were a little bit firmer. So, he ate a LOT later in the day.

He was not really a happy camper most of the day. If you were not in the same room with him, he started crying LOUDLY for you. This made it very challenging to take care of Ridley. Stephen was home for half of the day, but then went to work after lunch. That is when it got super hard because I could not be in 2 places at once.  A few tears  were shed (by Colby and me!), but we did make it. Tylenol helped, but didn’t take the pain away completely.

However, today, he went to preschool without complaint. He mentioned that his teeth still hurt, and his teacher said he mentioned it once at school as well, but then continued on and never said anything again. If you ask him about them, he’ll say they still hurt, but otherwise, he doesn’t really mention it now!

In order not to depress anyone on the woes of Colby, I’ll leave you with the nice bright spot of yesterday.

Now, if that doesn’t make smile, I don’t know what will!

Thank you for the prayers for Colby!

I know this is a bit last minute, since I doubt  many of you check blogs this late at night. BUT, anyway, please say a prayer for Mr. Colby. He is getting 4 crowns tomorrow morning (on Wednesday). Four molars didn’t form correctly, so they are very weak, and are already wearing down. So, crowns will protect them for the next 10 or so more years until those teeth fall out. He will be sedated with oral Demerol, and then will have laughing gas. Stephen will be with the other 2 tomorrow while I am with Colby. He really doesn’t know what is going to happen, but maybe that’s good?? We are going to be there at 7:30 in the morning. Figured we should go ahead and get the earliest appointment since he can’t eat anything after midnight tonight. So, bright and early it is! Praying it all goes super smoothly, and he’s back to his wild and crazy self in no time!

Thank you!

Here’s my public service announcement regarding carseats. I know a lot of us are ready to “simplify” or “save money” when it comes to car seats and booster seats. Please watch this video to see for yourself how this is not a good idea.

Here is another article that lists 10 Deadly Mistakes You’re Probably Making in regards to your carseats/boosters.

And, here is another article that discusses the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) new recommendations.

Abriella’s convertible carseat will be expiring before too many months. We will not be buying her a simple backless booster seat. I’d rather her be safe and alive than save a few bucks or simplify. She’ll be in a 5 point harness as long as is possible, which is a long time in some of the newer seats!

Ok, PSA over!

This here is our sweet baby boy yesterday at 3 months!

What is he doing now at 3 months, you ask? Oh, you didn’t ask. Well, I’ll put it down anyway!

* Smiling all the time! Of course, couldn’t get a super fabulous smile out of him on this picture, but I think he was concentrating on keeping his head up! haha!

* We are doing cloth diapers around the clock now, even at night, and it’s going very well. I need his thighs to get just a little fatter because a handful of our cloth dipes have a slight gap in the leg because he just isn’t chunky enough! HA!

* He lifts his head extremely well. He was strong from day 1, but I’m sure tummy sleeping (shhh, don’t tell!) helps him to develop these muscles better as well. (For those concerned about this tummy sleeping…we did it with Colby,too, and we use an Angelcare  Monitor to give us peace of mind).

* He coos and “talks” to us–so sweet!

* He loves for his sister to read to him. He watches her every move and even looks at the pictures she shows him. She loves to read to him, too!

* He loves to be in the Moby Wrap! I like it, too. The way it’s made, it takes a while before my back starts to ache! Not so with other slings and carriers I’ve used.

* He is doing much better at night! He goes to bed around 7-8pm and then he’s been waking once somewhere around 2:45-3:45 and then he usually wakes up about 3-3 1/2 hrs later (when it’s after 6am, I don’t consider that a night waking!), then most times, he goes back down for another 1 1/2 hrs or so. Then, he usually cat naps in the morning (probably because we are on the move most mornings, unfortunately), but then takes a really long afternoon nap of usually 3- 3 1/2 hrs long.

* He has successfully taken a few bottles. His first 2 attempts were not impressive. He pretty much held out until I got home and fed him. However, the other night, I went to a consignment sale out of town, and he was napping when I left. When he woke, Abriella (with Stephen’s assistance) fed him a bottle of pumped milk, and then Stephen gave him a bottle at bedtime…and, he went to sleep and slept the normal amount! YAY!!

* He is trying hard to find his thumb, it seems.  Since he refuses a pacifier, we’re rather hoping he does find his thumb.

* Still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but also wearing some 3-6 month as well. He’s just about right on with his months of age.

* Just about the sweetest baby out there, but I could be biased. But, I do think he is now our best baby out of the 3. Colby was a really good baby, but I think Ridley may have surpassed him for now. Things change daily, so you just never know what the next day will hold.

* Pretty sure the little man is going through a growth spurt right now, so that makes him slightly more challenging. Eating all the time, and a bit fussier. 3 month growth spurt, anyone??

* We still think he has his own look and doesn’t really look “just like” either Abriella or Colby. Each of them has had their own look. Some have said he looks just like baby Colby, but when I looked at Colby as a baby, I saw my brother in a big way. I do not see that when I look at Ridley, so to me, they do not look alike. Of course, they all do look like siblings for sure, and definitely can’t deny their parents.

*Has the best skin of any of our children. All of his milia are finally gone. Yay. He also happens to be our most underbathed baby! Maybe not bathing is much better! (I am not sure he even gets a bath once a week right now…but he still smells good like all babies should!).

Anyway, that seems to be where we are now! We are truly enjoying him! I think one of my girlfriends put it best when she said, “I think 3rd babies are dangerous. I’ve almost forgotten how crazy baby #1 was, I almost want to try for #4!”  HA! Well said.

Have a great day!

We have been trying to get some good smiles on camera of this little guy. We usually just enjoy his smiles, and by the time we think about the camera, he is done with smiling. haha! So, today, I caught some that I just love! Here are a couple in big format. The rest, I’ll put in an album.

This next one, he’s wearing a little newsboy hat that a friend of mine made for him! So cute!

Here is the link to the web album of some other smile pictures from today.

Ridley Smiles

Enjoy!

Here are a few pictures that we took on Easter Sunday! Thank you to Gammy for the outfits for the kids! Stephen and I wore prior Easter outfits, and they actually seemed to coordinate with the kids fairly well! And, I didn’t have to go shopping anywhere! Win!

We stayed in town this year. We just couldn’t see ourselves going anywhere with a 2 month old that isn’t the greatest sleeper at night (although he is getting better…some nights) and 2 preschoolers that inevitably would be poor sleepers elsewhere. It’s fatiguing enough to go on a trip without the previous factors. So, we opted to stay in town. Our friends, the Duggans, invited us to spend the day with their family. It was a wonderful day. They have 2 girls (ages 6 and 4) that our kids really enjoy playing with. Amanda’s parents and sister came, and Raymond’s mother also came. So, it was a nice get-together. After our lunch, the kids had an egg hunt, and then they played the rest of the afternoon in the backyard while all of the rest of us stayed inside and chatted. It was very relaxing! The kids played wonderfully together!!

It was a great Easter! Here is a song that I love that reminds me of true reason of Easter.

I Will Rise

Aw, how the years bring change to our kids. We visit Santa and the Easter bunny every year,  just to see the change in our kids from year to year. It really is pretty fun to watch them smile, cry, scream, you name it! I’ll start from the beginning.

This year, they did pretty good! Ridley was fussing, but you can’t really tell, since his fist is in front of his face. HA! Colby didn’t want to stand too close to the bunny, but we did manage to get a partial smile out of him. Success!

This picture was taken a few weeks ago. Colby loves to dress up…in anything! This particular outfit consisted of …well, see for yourself!

And, yes, that is a huge bruise on his forehead. He can’t seem to go more than a few days without one on his head. He is all boy in that manner! I actually edited out another bruise he had on his forehead in the bluebonnet pictures.  Silly boy!

This year, I finally got pictures of our kids with the state flower, the bluebonnet. I have always had aspirations to do such, but I always wait too long, or some crazy rain/hail storm comes and it’s too wet to take pictures or the flowers get beat down. This year, I was going to try to do better! I managed to make it happen one day! There was a little patch of bluebonnets in a field beside Stephen’s office. I went to that one…so I could get some help from Stephen! There are a ton of bluebonnets around here, but this little patch was just convenient for the above stated fact.

I’m not professional photographer, and I don’t know all the little tricks that they use. But, I did the best I could with 3 very wiggly subjects! Here are some from out little photo shoot!

Happy Spring!!